Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc.

My name is Emily and I will be your operator today. If participants need assistance during the call at any time, please press star zero. Participants interested in asking a question at the end of the call should press star one to get into the queue. Today's call is being recorded. And now I will turn the call over to Elizabeth B. Eccle, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing and Corporate Communications Officer. Ms. Eccle?

Thank you, Emily. Good morning and welcome to Washington Trust Bancorp Bank's third quarter 2023 conference call. Joining us this morning are members of Washington Trust executive team, Ned Handy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mary Nunes, President, Chief Operating Officer, Ron Osberg, Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, and Bill Ray, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer. Please note that today's presentation may contain forward-looking statements. and actual results could differ materially from what is discussed on today's call. Our complete safe harbor statement is contained in our earnings release, which was issued yesterday, as well as other documents that are filed with the SEC. All of these materials and other public filings are available on our investor relations website at ir.washtrust.com. Washington Trust trades on NASDAQ under the symbol WASH. I'm now pleased to introduce today's host, Washington Trust Chairman and CEO, Ned Handy.

Thank you, Beth. Good morning, and thank you for joining our third quarter conference call. We appreciate your time and interest in Washington Trust. During my remarks this morning, I'll provide comments about our third quarter results in context with the market conditions we're seeing, as well as an update on our current focus for value creation. Then Ron Osberg will offer more detail regarding our third quarter performance, and after our prepared remarks, Mary Nunes and Bill Ray will join us for the Q&A session. In the third quarter, our team did a solid job of managing through the current challenging market dynamics while executing our long-term strategy, which is to build a sustainably relevant, consistently profitable, and relationship-driven regional financial services organization. We remain laser-focused on all approaches to achieving in-market deposit growth, including technology investment, product development, branch expansion, and sales management. We grew in-market deposits in the third quarter in a very competitive landscape, and through our continued efforts and focus should drive additional growth in future periods. During this suppressed earnings cycle, we are committed to building capital. In the short run, this means shifting our lending activity to primarily supporting existing customers with high-quality credit that contributes to our capital. As such, we expect loan growth to slow measuredly. We remain entirely attentive to quality credit, both new and existing. Our underwriting and portfolio management standards, although always prudent, have tightened to reflect the uncertainty of the markets we serve. We will provide more detail in the Q&A session. We continue to operate in a challenging economic environment with financial markets in flux and geopolitical instability increasing. While these macro-level headwinds have affected earnings and do not appear likely to abate for some time, we remain confident the Washington Trust is positioned to weather this storm and emerge even stronger. We have a proven business model with diverse revenue streams, disciplined credit culture, and we continue to make progress executing our strategy to further strengthen our market opportunities and enhance the value that we deliver to our people, our customers, our communities, and our shareholders. Moving on to the quarter, Ron will soon take you through a detailed review of our financial performance, but here are a few high-level points from the quarter. First, our third quarter results, while they were not up to our historical standards, they were in line with both the prior quarter and expectations. We posted third quarter net income of $11.2 million or $0.65 per diluted share, about flat with $11.3 million or $0.66 per diluted share in the second quarter. Our margin remains under pressure from the competitive interest rate environment. On a positive note, our wealth management division delivered steady revenues, and we continue to tightly manage expenses. Turning to deposit growth, which is core to our strategy, we made good progress in the third quarter. Our deposit franchise is strong. intact and growing, albeit more expensive with understandable product shift in the current rate environment. Our branching strategy continues to be successful with average size at $209 million and deposits at our three newest branches stand at $70 million after two years, $28 million after just one year, and $11 million after only five months. As mentioned on previous calls, we plan to open a new branch in the Olneyville section of Providence in early 2024. and one in Smithfield, Rhode Island, also in the first quarter. Finally, our credit remained strong during the quarter, and we consider managing credit risk and overall balance sheet strength through this challenging point in the cycle an imperative for positioning Washington Trust for long-term performance. Before I turn the call over to Ron, I'd like to briefly mention some important progress we made in executing several key strategic priorities during the quarter. These achievements advance our mission to deliver what today's banking consumers want, need, and value. digital offerings, high-touch service, and competitive products and pricing. During the quarter, we made advancements in expanding our digital presence. We understand technology is dominating every aspect of our lives, and banking is no different. Consumers are demanding convenient digital offerings, and Washington Trust is focused on being there with the right offerings to meet that demand, whether it involves enhancing online deposit account opening or providing seamless, continuous expedited services across delivery channels. Throughout our history, Washington Trust has joined a strong brand reputation in our core markets. Recently, we launched a new brand positioning statement, What We Value Is You, supported by a multimedia advertising campaign designed to reach and enhance our presence both digitally and throughout our expanded market area. What We Value Is You is a powerful phrase that embodies the spirit and purpose of Washington Trust and helps illuminate the importance we place on our employees, customers, and communities as drivers of shareholder value. Our new campaign promotes Washington Trust's comprehensive financial solutions, including checking and savings accounts, digital banking services, home lending, and business banking, and it highlights our current deposit special offers. These are certainly unusual times, but we believe we have the right strategy and the right team in place to weather the current macro dynamics while capitalizing on market trends and the strengths of our bank. I'll now turn the call over to Ron for an in-depth review of our financial performance. Ron?